Saint Mary's cruises to 19th straight win; Gonzaga next

By Joseph D'Hippolito, Bay Area News Group

Friday, February 9, 2018

LOS ANGELES — As Saint Mary’s extended the longest winning streak in NCAA Division I men’s basketball Thursday night, one member of the Gaels’ backcourt matched a personal best while another set a school record.

Jordan Ford tied his career high with 20 points, and Emmett Naar became the school’s all-time assist leader as SMC earned its 19th consecutive victory, an 83-62 decision over Loyola Marymount at Albert Gersten Pavilion.

Naar’s 12 assists enabled him to pass fellow Australian Matthew Dellavedova for the school’s career record. Naar now has 769 assists, one more than Dellavedova.

“I never thought anything like this would ever happen,” Naar said. “Saint Mary’s was one of the only schools that recruited me, so I was just happy to come here, to be honest.”

During his quest, the senior from Sydney received Dellavedova’s support.

“He sent me a message the other day, saying that’s he watching, to keep it rolling and he’s enjoying it,” Naar said. “To hear that from him is pretty amazing.

“He’s someone that I’ve looked up to and, I’m sure, a lot of Australians have looked up to. I try to play a bit like him and I’ve watched him play a lot.”

Meanwhile, Ford not only made nine of 11 shots but also held LMU’s leading scorer, James Batemon, to nine points.

“I just knew from the get-go that I was going to be able to get on the rim and use my quickness to get to the basket,” Ford said. “After the first couple of shots, I had a feeling that they were struggling with my penetration.”

Jock Landale added 21 points and nine rebounds while Calvin Hermanson scored 10 points for the Gaels (24-2, 13-0), who earned their 17th successive West Coast Conference victory and their 14th straight on the road.

SMC, ranked 11th by the Associated Press and 14th in the USA Today coaches’ poll, will face Gonzaga on Saturday night at McKeon Pavilion. Gonzaga is rated 12th in both polls but if the Gaels win, they would lead the Zags by two games with four remaining.

“We know there’s going to be a lot of hype around it,” Landale said. ” We try not to gas it up too much or hype it up too much because that will hurt us in the end. We’ve just got to treat it like any other game”

LMU (7-17, 2-11), which trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, drew within 42-35 in the first 1:39 of the second half. But after expanding its lead to 49-38, SMC embarked on a 6-0 blitz to forge a 55-38 advantage.

When LMU narrowed the deficit to 59-47, Hermanson made a pair of three-point shots within 46 seconds to extend the margin to 68-51 with 9:17 to play.